To the editor: The insurance coverage dominoes are toppling in every single place. Individuals who didn’t take note of the results of local weather change earlier than are taking discover now that their private price has a greenback signal. (“Local weather change is making California dearer. House insurance coverage is the newest bellwether,” editorial, June 2)
As common, it’s an environmental justice subject: Everybody suffers, however the poor endure essentially the most whereas the rich can afford the value or have the choice to maneuver.
We will adapt to inevitable catastrophes solely to a restricted extent by “constructing safer communities.” We will transfer someplace not endangered by wildfires, biblical storms and floods, sea-level rise — the record goes on.
However I do know of no place not liable to at the least one in all these, and they’re more and more frequent and extreme.
The disaster is local weather change, not reasonably priced insurance coverage. It should be addressed instantly, not by adaptation and financial maneuvers.
California is exemplary in decreasing greenhouse gasoline emissions however is reluctant to forgo the earnings from producing, transporting and exporting petroleum. It is going to be less expensive and simpler to assault local weather change aggressively on all fronts than to take half measures.
Carol Steinhart, Madison, Wis.
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To the editor: Why don’t the insurance coverage firms simply do the identical as they do now with respect to earthquakes — promote home-owner insurance policies that exclude protection for injury attributable to wildfires (which might optionally be bought individually)?
That might put the burden on the state to both cease new building in wildfire areas or plan on bearing the monetary price itself.
Maureen McConaghy, Orange
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To the editor: Personal insurance coverage is simply too risk-averse to assist us face extraordinary disasters, a lot much less these which can be prone to accompany local weather change.
How do I do know this? Earlier than the Northridge earthquake in 1994, insurance coverage firms lined earthquakes. Afterward, solely the state of California supplied earthquake insurance coverage.
As state Sen. Invoice Dodd (D-Napa) suggests, we’ve got to do the identical factor now. California has to offer property insurance coverage for us all.
Joan DaVanzo, Lengthy Seaside
